Disturbing Quotes

• I was born with the devil in me,' [Holmes] wrote. 'I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.

  Erik Larson

  Inspiration, Serial Killer, Devil

  23 Copy quote

• If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.

  Eckhart Tolle

  Motivational, Positive, Spiritual

  Eckhart Tolle (2006). “A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose”, p.144, Penguin

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• So long as we are under the control of disturbing emotions, real happiness is hard to find.

  Dalai Lama

  Real, Long, Emotion

  5 Copy quote

• The duty of the church is to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable.

  Michael Ramsey

  Comforting, Church, Duty

  65 Copy quote

• Awakenings are always terrifying as they force you to realize your past has been lived in confinement, the most disturbing part is when you recognize that the shackle holding you down are largely once you have placed upon yourself, the prison is self constructed

  Dean Karnazes

  Past, Self, Awakening

  11 Copy quote

• As far as I can judge, not much good can be done without disturbing something or somebody.

  Edward Blake

  Judging, Done, Disturbing Things

  6 Copy quote

• Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. It seeks to show new perspectives and other choices. It is a way to help expand and liberate the consciousness; our experiences, understandings, imaginings, options and thereby our lives.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Lying, Men

  "The Soul of Man under Socialism". Book by Oscar Wilde, 1891.

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• As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery.
  We have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace.
  The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as
  anger and attachment, fear and suspicion,
  while love and compassion, a sense of universal responsibility
  are the sources of peace and happiness.

  Dalai Lama

  Happiness, Buddhist, Freedom

  30 Copy quote

• A disturbing possibility exists that the television experience has not merely blurred the distinctions between the real and the unreal for steady viewers, but that by doing so it has dulled their sensitivities to real events. For when the reality of a situation is diminished, people are able to react to it less emotionally, more as spectators.

  Marie Winn

  Real, People, Events

  Marie Winn (1978). “Plug in Drug”, Bantam Books

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• He dares not concern himself with the future for fear of disturbing the present.

  Carol Shields

  Fear, Future, Dare

  Carol Shields (2008). “The Stone Diaries: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.25, Penguin

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• To think that we are disconnected in some way serves the occupation whether it's through indifference or a distancing. It is a colonial approach of making you a subject and them the spectators. That is disturbing and counterproductive. And then suddenly they are surprised or find it alienating that the microcosmic effects of Palestine are happening in the U.S., France, and England, whether it's from the Islamic movements or immigration factors. Keeping a false purity of their countries will harm them eventually.

  Elia Suleiman

  Country, Islamic, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  8 Copy quote

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• We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Good Luck, Media, Different

  Radio-Television News Directors Association Convention Address, delivered 15 October 1958, Chicago, Illinois

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• Iran can recruit hundreds of suicide bombers a day. Suicide is an invincible weapon. Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Suicide, Iran, Land

  56 Copy quote

• I never suffered from the absence of a father. On the contrary, as a child I was more inclined to see men as a disturbing factor. It made things difficult for me when I started working as a director.

  Michael Haneke

  Children, Father, Men

  7 Copy quote

• The Lord is knocking at the door of our hearts. Have we put a sign on the door saying: 'Do not disturb'?

  Pope Francis

  Heart, Doors, Servant Of God

  10 Copy quote

• Woman! woman! What a disturbing element you are in the universe - man's universe!

  Marah Ellis Ryan

  Women, Elements, Universe

  8 Copy quote

• Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Rocks, Guy, Sailing

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.12, Open Road Media

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• There's something profoundly disturbing about watching an old guy eat a sandwich.

  Dana Gould

  Guy, Sandwiches, Old Guys

  FaceBook post by Dana Gould from Oct 15, 2012

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• The more you think about your own self, the more self-centred you are, the more trouble even small problems can create in your mind. The stronger your sense of 'I', the narrower the scope of your thinking becomes; then even small obstacles become unbearable. On the other hand, if you concern yourself mainly with others, the broader your thinking becomes, and life's inevitable difficulties disturb you less.

  Dalai Lama

  Thinking, Small Problems, Self

  43 Copy quote

• It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people

  Woody Guthrie

  Jobs, People, Comforting

  1753 Copy quote

• What is most disturbing today is that we use rational methods to cultivate the tastes and values of the young in all kinds of educational, religious, and cultural institutions that are predicated on corporate practices and goals. Everything we do to, with, and for our children is influenced by capitalist market conditions and the hegemonic interests of ruling corporate elites. In simple terms, we calculate what is best for our children by regarding them as investments and turning them into commodities.

  Jack Zipes

  Religious, Children, Educational

  8 Copy quote

• When it comes to spiritual teachers, there are those safe, gentle, consoling, soothing, caring; and there are the outlaws, the living terrors, the Rude Boys and Nasty Girls of God realization, the men and women who are in your face, disturbing you terrifying you, until you radically awaken to who and what you really are.

  Ken Wilber

  Girl, Spiritual, Teacher

  51 Copy quote

• Making women the sexual gatekeepers and telling men they just can't help themselves not only drives home the point that women's sexuality is unnatural, but also sets up a disturbing dynamic in which women are expected to be responsible for men's sexual behavior.

  Jessica Valenti

  Home, Men, Helping

  Jessica Valenti (2009). “The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women”, p.108, Seal Press

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• For me, the most disturbing aspect of the Republican political culture is how it puts its unquenchable thirst for power, domination and a radical ideology above facts, reason and the truth.

  Al Gore

  Political, Culture, Facts

  10 Copy quote

• An involuntary return to the point of departure is, without doubt, the most disturbing of all journeys.

  Iain Sinclair

  Travel, Journey, Doubt

  Iain Sinclair (2004). “Downriver, or, The vessels of wrath: a narrative in twelve tales”, Penguin Books Ltd

  48 Copy quote

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